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Vernon Davis tied a then-NFL record for touchdowns by a tight end in 2009 thanks, in part, to a seam route over the middle that routinely flummoxed secondaries.

In 2010, however, the seam route was often shut down: The sight of Davis across the middle typically attracted safeties, linebackers, cornerbacks, strength-and-conditioning coaches …

I bring this up because 49ers quarterback Alex Smith knows from experience how much attention Davis has drawn during his career. Both Jim Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Greg Roman have said defenses have taken drastic measures recently to take Davis away.

And Smith, who has a longer history with Davis, agrees. The quarterback said he’s never seen defenses place such an emphasis on taking away Davis, who has five catches for 71 yards in his past three games.

“I see a lot of teams trying to take away the big play in the passing game from Vernon,” Davis said. “I don’t know if there’s another big-play tight end quite like him. I know there’s a lot of tight ends that have a lot of catches and have a lot of production, but they don’t necessarily have the explosion that he has. But in taking that away, it’s opened up a lot underneath for other guys.”

The potential good news for Davis: Another big-play tight end, New England’s Rob Gronkowski, had eight catches for 146 yards and two touchdowns in a 45-7 win over the Rams on Oct. 28.

So could St. Louis, which will visit San Francisco on Sunday, assist in ending Davis’ slump? Prior to Gronkowski’s performance, the Rams had actually fared well against opposing tight ends.